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By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) - About 100 United Steelworkersunion (USW) members rallied on Wednesday outside aLyondellBasell Industries Houston oil refinery over alack of negotiations there on a new local contract.
Talks on a national oil-workers agreement are due to beginnext month with Shell Oil Co, the U.S. unit of Royal Dutch ShellPlc, as the lead industry negotiator. Existing unioncontracts expire on Feb. 1.
However, local groups are beginning discussions onindividual plant issues ahead of the national talks. At leastfour other plants also have begun exchanging proposals on localissues, according to the USW.
LyondellBasell officials did not begin talks on union localissues as planned on Monday, Marcos Velez, a USW Internationalrepresentative said in an interview on Wednesday. The existingcontract covering the plant's 485 union workers expires on Feb.1.
"They called and said they couldn't make it (Monday) andwould call about meeting Tuesday," Velez said. "It's Wednesdayand we're still waiting to meet."
A Lyondell spokeswoman did not reply to a request forcomment on Wednesday.
The USW group carried signs that said "coming soon" andshowed silhouettes of people picketing. Union-representedLyondell workers were off their jobs for 3 1/2 months during astrike and contract talks in 2015.
The national agreement, which covers wages, job security,health and safety issues, will be combined with terms of theagreement on local issues at each plant to complete the contractfor each location.
Velez said Lyondell also canceled meetings during the 2015strike.
"It's not uncommon, but it's unacceptable," he said.
During the rally, USW activist Joshua Lege used a bullhornto speak to the workers, many of them wearing blue workcoveralls as they lined up in front of the refinery.
"They say they want peace and professionalism, but they wantwar," Lege said.
The national contract covers about 30,000 refinery andchemical plant workers. In September, union officials agreed toseek 8 percent annual wage increases and a 3-year contract inthe coming negotiations.
The contract would cover plants operated by Shell, MarathonPetroleum Corp BP Plc, Exxon Mobil Corp,Valero Energy Corp, and smaller refiners such asHollyFrontier Corp and Delek US Holdings Inc.(Reporting by Erwin Seba; editing by Grant McCool)
